June 10, 2011

NOVELTY | Acne Paper #12, out on July 5th

Cover of the soon to be out new Acne paper, the thickest issue ever. Read the story and thoughts behind this issue's theme; youth.In stores on July 5th.

Like a rebel with a cause, Acne was born 15 years ago to do things differently. With the motto “Discover how far you can go”, a group of idealistic young friends in Sweden joined forces to race together in the fashion and media arena. Free of conventional hierarchy but with a strong involvement in encouraging youths of different talents, artistic as well as industrious, acne became a platform for young people from various backgrounds to learn, grow and prosper. Because youthfulness and its many characteristics has in many ways been the very foundation of our company, we thought it was about time to dedicate an issue of Acne Paper to the subject of Youth.

While being young is one thing that most people are pretty good at, it is more unusual to be exceptionally good at something when you are very young. People who express great devotion to a creative practice from an early age was something we found interesting to address, and especially the young who breathe new life into old artisanal traditions. In a world of commerce, mass production, fast consuming culture and self-publicity, what does the future hold for fine arts and crafts? Are we slowly seeing the elimination of artistic skills that once were the fundaments of cultural life, or are we witnessing a reaction against this development with a new renaissance for old-world quality and refinement?

To shed light on these questions we have searched for young people from around the world who reinforce their chosen path with a fresh approach. What is it like being a young ballet dancer today, or a classical musician, a playwright, or a craftsman? Through interviews, documentary, photography, portraiture, biography, and fashion, our new issue celebrates many young talents, and also those who look upon youth from a creative point of view.

We have tried to broaden this horizon by studying the young from both an anthropological and scientific perspective. Questions such as how creativity work in a young versus an elderly mind; what mentors can teach protégés, and vice versa; what kind of impact our environment and also cultural differences have on traditions, past and present, all try to find answers throughout the current issue. It is our biggest edition to date: 256 pages. Within it we hope you will find beauty, energy, purity, confidence, idealism, creativity, boldness, vision, rebellion, and all of youth’s many attractive characteristics.

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Source: Acne press releaseHave to mention: today was my last day of class of my second year of journalism. I'm going to pretend I haven't learned anything and copied an entire press release. This would probably get me killed by my teachers. But this is the first magazine that I'm getting excited for to buy this year, so I just had to share. I can not wait to dive into those 256 pages of inspiration. For those who don't have an Acne store nearby and won't find Acne paper in their local bookshop, you can order Acne paper here

Great subject. Youth is my favourite thing ever. I have to get this issue. You live in Amsterdam right? Where do you buy it? Online? Anyway, I know your blog for a pretty long time now, but this just shows me again how amazing you are. You're so creative & inspiring & I can't say it enough. How's your 30 days experiment going?

i'd love to have a copy of that issue.my mom is a fine arts teacher, so i've been highly motivated toward arts from a very early age. we've had our ups and downs through-out our mother-daughter relationship, but i've always thanked her that early motivation she gave me from day one.i truly think there's no better toy for a kid that white pieces of paper, watercolors, crayolas, fabrics, scissors and glue to let them create as they wish. the already-made culture we're living in is nothing but a big set back on children's imagination. and that's terrible.i'm a photographer. i've tried to study law or medicine, as my family would wanted me, but it just didn't work out. dennying your past and your origins never works out.i focus on analogical photography. photoshop will never top making my own rolls of film, developing and printing. the excitement of the image appearing on the paper while bathing on developer.i understand the advantages of digital photography (i've worked with it many, many times), but listening to someone saying that analogical photo is dead both breaks my heart and irritates me at no end.i think that novelties comes and goes on waves. some years ago, with digital cameras bloom, that was, as we said, the bloom. the IN thing. now that that technology is available to everyone and it's not exclusive anymore, for giving a name to the situation, you find more and more people interested on analogical technology. but then something happens, and when they realize that it wasn't as easy as pointing, shooting, checking if the result was ok, and if it wasn't, reshooting, they give up on the idea. we're living the era of the laziness. and then appears applications for iphone that try to imitate the results of a film photo. name it instagram, amongst some other names.handcrafting will never lose its magic. either sewing, developing, drawing or sculping, amongst some other many, many handcrafted arts will never stop to amuze me. the mouth-to-mouth teaching should continue in order to preserve those arts. art world based on digital technology would be extremely boring otherwise.sorry for the long comment :/